Sunday, November 6, 2011

I'm occupying my chair.

I've spent a fair amount of time the last few weeks reading about various political/enconomic opinions, both from Occupy KC and from the more conservative end.  So this is not an "about kids" post.  Economics, health care,etc. are issues that affect my children though, so I like to be informed and when the time comes vote accordingly.
    An article I read yesterday stated that "15 states had a surplus."  http://news.yahoo.com/amid-deficit-gloom-states-enjoy-surpluses-160127940.html
What I would like is to find another, more detailed article listing all fifteen of these states and what they have in common.   Some of the individual measures they've taken are kind of disturbing, but surely there are others that are not, and those will likely be repeating themes.   Then, when reforming our national economic policy consider whether these measures would be feasible  on a larger scale.  If there are sacrifices included we don't think we should make, then we'll have to look at solutions like tax increases.  I'm 99% sure that any realistic solution will include both substantial program cuts and tax increases.  
   When it comes to health care I have similar thoughts.  There are already systems in place that works quite well for federal and state employees, and military retirees, and such.  Why not look at these functional systems, and find ways to expand them instead of reinventing the wheel?  At least it would be a place to start. 

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